Mnquma’s pain

My heart is broken. We are really suffering here in my hometown of Butterworth while ruthless people are playing with our funds.

Every effort of government must be focused on improving the lives of all our people. To achieve this, all organs of state must be effective, transparent, accountable and coherent. But how can our people believe in government when we see many of our institutions abused by the ruling party and the connected few who seem focused only on serving their own interests?

In 2012, the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation found that 50% of South Africans believed that “leaders are not concerned with people like me” and that only 38.5% believed that government was doing enough to combat corruption.

Things have not improved. We need change. When we talk about tackling the social and economic challenges we face, we must talk about a change in government in order to regain the trust of the people. We need a government that cares for the wellbeing of all its people. — Veliswa Mvenya, MPL, DA Phesheya Kwenciba constituency leader, Butterworth